A fascinating theory put up by the irrepressible Daniel Gross at Newseek that there is a correlation between the concentration of Starbucks outlets in a country's financial capital and the likelihood of it entering a recession.

"At first blush, there's a pretty close correlation between a country having a significant Starbucks presence, especially in its financial capital, and major financial cock-ups, from Australia (big blow ups in finance, hedge funds and asset-management companies; 23 stores) to the United Kingdom (nationalization of the nation's largest banks). In many ways, London in recent years has been a more concentrated version of New York-the wellspring of many toxic innovations, a hedge-fund haven. It sports 256 Starbucks. In Spain, which is now grappling with the bursting of a speculative coastal real-estate bubble (sound familiar?), the financial capital, Madrid, has 48 outlets. In crazy Dubai, 48 Starbucks outlets serve a population of 1.4 million. And so on: South Korea, which is bailing outs its banks big time, has 253; Paris, the locus of several embarrassing debacles, has 35."

You might want to check the Starbucks international store locater to see for yourself.

There is a certain logic to it. The Starbucks strategy was to follow new housing developments in the suburbs. Which meant that where there was a housing bubble and fast money, you would find a Starbucks.